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In California? I guess if you order the NHL Package you should get the Philly Broadcast, that is what I love about Directv they give you both Teams Broadcast, but living in Philly every time the Rangers play the Flyers it's Blackout on NHL Package

Incorrect. When the Flyers play we get one broadcast and that's the other team's. Only exception is when the other team is not televising. On top of that, if it's a Canadian team, we almost always wind up with a standard def broadcast.

I wouldn't expect it. But it sure would be a welcomed gesture and tell me the NHL really cares about its fans.

The reality, though, is that the NHL depends on the live gate for its revenue more than any other sport. So the league's grand strategy should be to retain paying customers in the seats. I predict the overwhelming majority of feel-good efforts will be directed at making ticket purchasers feel good about continuing to part with their money, and a minimum at Centre Ice or Game Center subs, who don't contribute nearly the proportion of revenue that the live gate does.

-- Ira

================================================"There are no solutions to complex problems" -- Stan Littman, longtime social studies teacher at The Bronx High School of Science

If you walked up to the front door of BankAtlantic Center or Tampa Bay Times Forum, would you expect them to give you a ticket for free?

If you consider the full-season ticket holder to be the core of their fanbase, then you could certainly make the case that making the first home game back "free" (i.e. crediting their account) for STH makes even more sense than discounts on NHL CI. But I don't expect that either. I expect team-based promotions that will center around some extra goodies, or selling new partial season STH at a discount (for teams with low attendance anyway).

I know I am going to try and get it for 50 dollars or less since last year I think I got it for 100....

$50 is the figure I had in mind too, and I was dumb enough to pay full price for last year. Not to mention the NHL needs to realize that CI is not worth what it used to be since it doesn't have playoff games anymore.

I've had NHLCI for years, both on Comcast and now most recently on DirecTV. It's a much better offering in terms of HD games, but I'm considering looking at GameCenter this year.

Can anyone who's used GameCenter answer a basic question for me? Does it support recording or some kind of "delayed-start" mechanism? I live on the west coast and like to come home from work and watch games in the evening that started at 7PM EST/4PM PST. With CI, I just DVR these games and then watch them when I get home, but does GameCenter have something like this?

I've had NHLCI for years, both on Comcast and now most recently on DirecTV. It's a much better offering in terms of HD games, but I'm considering looking at GameCenter this year.

Can anyone who's used GameCenter answer a basic question for me? Does it support recording or some kind of "delayed-start" mechanism? I live on the west coast and like to come home from work and watch games in the evening that started at 7PM EST/4PM PST. With CI, I just DVR these games and then watch them when I get home, but does GameCenter have something like this?

Thanks!

If you pull up a game in progress, you can either choose to join the game live or start the broadcast from its beginning on NHL Gamecenter.

Satelliteracer, please understand that I get that you are exactly right, that it does cost a business a considerable amount of money to broadcast anything. No dispute in that premise whatsoever.

However, I'm just saying that given that the NHL has a much smaller fanbase than the other three major sports, and because they have had several past strikes that have harmed the game in recent years, it may be worth it to both owners and players to offer at least Gamecenter either free for this season or at a substantially reduced price to win back fans who have been alienated by the whole mess. Sometimes, you have to invest money to eventually win back money and customers.

ESPN will tell you the NHL has a smaller fan base and so will many other mainstream outlets that are sheep.

The fact of the matter is the NHL and NBA draw just about even in average attendance and then if you throw in attendance with % to capacity (NHL seating configurations are less in a building than in the NBA) then numbers skews in favor of the NHL.

On the TV side, in 2011, VAN vs BOS had 11 million U.S viewers. In 2010, PHI vs CHI drew 12 million U.S viewers. The avg NBA final for the last 15 yrs averaged 13 million viewers. the last 2 world series only drew 8 million viewers.

Then toss in this observation by Mark Cuban which I think is very valid:

ESPN will tell you the NHL has a smaller fan base and so will many other mainstream outlets that are sheep.

On the TV side, in 2011, VAN vs BOS had 11 million U.S viewers. In 2010, PHI vs CHI drew 12 million U.S viewers. The avg NBA final for the last 15 yrs averaged 13 million viewers. the last 2 world series only drew 8 million viewers.

I love hockey but your comparisons are seriously slanted. You are comparing the two highest rated individual NHL games of the last three years versus a 15 year average of NBA Final Round series. Most of the early games of the Stanley Cup Finals do pretty poorly and I notice you didn't mention the 2012 Finals at all. There is a reason the NBA TV contract dwarfs the NHL contract and it's not just because ESPN loves basketball

I love hockey but your comparisons are seriously slanted. You are comparing the two highest rated individual NHL games of the last three years versus a 15 year average of NBA Final Round series. Most of the early games of the Stanley Cup Finals do pretty poorly and I notice you didn't mention the 2012 Finals at all. There is a reason the NBA TV contract dwarfs the NHL contract and it's not just because ESPN loves basketball

I don't disagree to an extent. It's not either sports fault, but perhaps if the NBA had more parity like the NHL and the big markets with the big players weren't always in the mix all the time in the NBA (which is why the Stanley Cup playoffs are more compelling, more upsets), I think you'd see numbers more consistently close. A couple of Memphis/Indiana finals would make my point better.

Guys, some reporters are starting to hear NHL is going to give this season on NHL CI for free. I'm going to try and find a link or tweet to get confirmation.

NHL and Teams are planning to do a lot of marketing to get people back,

TB lightning are offering season tickets for 200 which is under 20 a game for 24 games not bad.

some place will be doing food discounts, etc.

as said I'm trying to find a link let me keep digging.

One thing will be certain a lot of NHL this year will be cheaper.

I believe the Penguins are are giving away 3 free concessions (no beer) for each person walking thru the gate for the first 4 games. The Sabres are offering 50% off anything in the Sabre store from now until the season starts...(good time to buy that jersey for someone specail for Christmas next year)

I believe the Penguins are are giving away 3 free concessions (no beer) for each person walking thru the gate for the first 4 games. The Sabres are offering 50% off anything in the Sabre store from now until the season starts...(good time to buy that jersey for someone specail for Christmas next year)

Marlen

Those make sense. You have to buy something in both cases (tickets and stuff from the store) plus stuff from the store is advertising if you wear it.